Thanksgiving is a holiday associated with many wonderful things. We get an entire week off of school to return to the comfort of our hometowns, where your family spoils you with dinner and clean laundry, and old friends laugh with you as you recount the semester’s most embarrassing moments. Then Thursday comes around and we can unapologetically partake in the gluttony that is having mashed potatoes with a side of more mashed potatoes for the first of four courses at dinner. One thing we tend to forget, however, is one important thing that it gives us: Thanksgiving themed episodes of our favorite TV shows. So to show our gratitude for one of TV’s best traditions, let’s reflect on the top five Thanksgiving episodes television has blessed us with.
1. Full House – “The Miracle of Thanksgiving”
If the mention of Full House doesn’t pull at your heartstrings, you are probably a robot. A show rooted in the importance of family obviously pulls off a Thanksgiving episode like no other. In this particular episode, we see the family deal with their first Thanksgiving after their mother’s death. It’s an emotional episode, but Danny comes to the rescue with that telltale background music and a heartfelt speech in which he tells an upset D.J., “Mom knew Thanksgiving wasn’t about turkeys. It’s about family and being thankful for what we have. I’m thankful that I have you.” Cue the tears.
2. Gossip Girl – “Blair Waldorf Must Pie”
Season one of Gossip Girl was an emotional, dramatic, risqué ride from start to finish. In this Thanksgiving episode, viewers are treated to flashbacks of Serena in her wild-child days and get to see Blair in a more vulnerable state when her Dad decides to ditch the family and stay in Paris. Blair is not the only one with family issues though, and as the episode progresses, we’re left wondering if anyone on the Upper East Side actually comes from a functional family. But fear not, it is a holiday after all, and the episode somehow manages to end with everyone smiling and happy, momentarily forgetting that a creepy online blogger stalks their every move and spends years trying to destroy their reputations. XOXO, Gossip Girl.
3. Grey’s Anatomy – “Thanks for the Memories”
Thanksgiving means family, and no one does family dysfunction quite like the doctors of Seattle Grace. George laments a day spent with his rambunctious brothers, Addison and Derek get awkward on the ferry in their attempts to save their marriage, Burke breaks out his cooking skills to impress Cristina’s friends and Meredith escapes Izzie’s holiday fever by taking a shift at work. Despite the day’s craziness, the episode ends, as always, with a calming voiceover from a wise Meredith, who tells us, “Maybe being grateful means recognizing what you have for what it is. Appreciating small victories. Admiring the struggle it takes simply to be human.” Amen.
4. How I Met Your Mother – “Slapsgiving”
The long running jokes of How I Met Your Mother are a large part of why the show is so beloved. Needless to say, the jokes of “Slapsgiving” do not disappoint. The slaps between Marshall and Barney were first introduced in the episode “Slap Bet.” In “Slapsgiving,” Marshall still owes Barney one slap, but the fear he instills in Barney in the countdown to the slap forces Lily, the Slap Bet Commissioner, to ban it from happening on Thanksgiving Day. Unfortunately for Barney, his taunting annoys Lily so much that she allows Marshall to use his final slap, thus concluding “Slapsgiving.” Ted and Robin, who spend the episode dealing with the uncomfortable nature of their friendship post-breakup, introduce another joke that would carry on throughout the show’s run. Future Ted explains to his children that when dating, he and Robin would salute whenever someone used a military rank before a word in a sentence (i.e. general knowledge). We see this occur throughout the episode, as the group unconsciously salutes ‘major buzz kill’ and ‘major cleanup.’ Major laughs.
5. Friends – “The One With All The Thanksgivings”
Choosing a single Friends episode for this list is incredibly difficult, considering Friends is the reigning champ when it comes to Thanksgiving episodes. After all, who can forget Brad Pitt’s guest appearance in, “The One with the Rumor” or the love triangle conclusion between Joey, Chandler and Kathy in, “The One with Chandler in a Box.” Still, “The One With All The Thanksgivings” is a classic, and Monica’s head inside a turkey is an undisputable favorite scene in all of Friends history. Chandler accidentally tells Monica he loves her, we flashback to the gang’s awful looks of the 80’s and 90’s and Monica cuts off Chandler’s toe in an effort to be sexy. It’s everything you could ask for in a holiday.